State v. Jackson

1
NOT DESIGNATED FOR PUBLICATION

No. 113,859

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF KANSAS

STATE OF KANSAS,
Appellee,

v.

DONALD R. JACKSON,
Appellant.


MEMORANDUM OPINION

Appeal from Wyandotte District Court; R. WAYNE LAMPSON, judge. Opinion filed April 22,
2016. Affirmed.

Submitted for summary disposition pursuant to K.S.A. 2015 Supp. 21-6820(g) and (h).

Before STANDRIDGE, P.J, LEBEN and POWELL, JJ.

Per Curiam: Donald R. Jackson appeals the district court's decision to deny his
motion to convert pre-1993 indeterminate sentences. We granted Jackson's motion for
summary disposition in lieu of briefs pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 7.041A (2015 Kan.
Ct. R. Annot. 67). The State did not file a response.

In 1990, Jackson was found guilty by a jury of one count each of aggravated
burglary, burglary, and felony theft. He was sentenced under the Habitual Criminal Act
(HCA) to enhanced consecutive indeterminate prison terms for each count. In 2000,
Jackson's sentence was vacated by this court, and the case was remanded for resentencing
without invoking the HCA. State v. Jackson, No. 83,631, unpublished opinion filed July
14, 2000. On remand, the district court reduced Jackson's sentence to consecutive prison
2
terms of 5 to 20 years for aggravated burglary, 3 to 10 years for burglary, and 1 to 5 years
for felony theft.

In 2014, Jackson filed a motion to convert his pre-1993 indeterminate sentences to
guidelines sentences under the Kansas Sentencing Guidelines Act (KSGA) based on State
v. Murdock, 299 Kan. 312, 323 P.3d 846 (2014), modified by Supreme Court order
September 19, 2014, overruled by State v. Keel, 302 Kan. 560, 357 P.3d 251 (2015), cert.
denied 136 S. Ct. 865 (2016). The district court denied the motion, finding that "[n]othing
in the Murdock decision applies to the conversion process."

Jackson appeals from the district court's decision to deny his motion. Specifically,
Jackson alleges that "the district court erred in denying his motion for conversion based
upon his 1990 convictions not being classified as person felonies under [Murdock]." As
the district court concluded, however, the holding in Murdock is not legally applicable to
the facts presented here. Jackson was sentenced before the KSGA was enacted; thus, his
sentence was not determined based on prior criminal history or classification of crimes as
person or nonperson offenses. And even if the legal holding in Murdock was applicable,
Jackson's sentence would still fall in the presumptive prison box of the sentencing grid,
which under the conversion statute is not a sentence eligible for modification as requested
by Jackson. Finally, as Jackson acknowledges in his motion, our Supreme Court's holding
in Murdock has been overruled in Keel.

For all of these reasons, the district court did not err in denying Jackson's motion
for conversion of his sentences.

Affirmed.